luminance
/ˈluːmɪnəns/
"luminance" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“luminance” is an uncommon English word, ranked #50,648 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #50,648
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The quality of being luminous.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | luminance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈluːmɪnəns/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #50,648 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “luminance” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for luminance is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈluːmɪnəns/. Corpus data places it at rank #50,648 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
luminance doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is luminance, spelled L-U-M-I-N-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1The quality of being luminous.
- 2The amount of light that passes through, is emitted, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle.
- 3The luminous flux emitted in a given direction divided by the product of the projected area of the source element perpendicular to the direction and the solid angle containing that direction (i.e. luminous intensity divided by unit area), measured in stilbs or apostilbs.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “luminance”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-U-M-I-N-A-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈluːmɪnəns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.